Sawmills need wood

As I sit in my office overlooking my log yard, I think to myself, where is the next piece of wood going to come from?

It’s the same thought I had almost 40 years ago. Can you believe it, in a land where there is so much wood? Even today, when there are only a few sawmills left and one paper mill.

Where is the wood? Well, here on the Avalon Peninsula it is rotting, blown down, burned or over-mature. We do not have the luxury of harvesting mature wood anymore. Is the fate, as well, for central Newfoundland?

What is exactly happening to our forest in central Newfoundland? I hear all kinds of rumours. Let’s hope that our government is looking after the survivors of the economic slump first, not some foreign giant that is coming here to pillage and plunder before our own people are looked after. Will we, as sawmill operators, be beaten to near death again?

Remember this, those who still have the power and will to change: logs first, waste wood second. Same as everywhere else in the world. Will I see it again in my lifetime, where even 2x3s, 2x4s and,

who knows, pallets, will have to

be imported to Newfoundland because we are subject to not being able to harvest a stick of wood?

No sawmill should be without wood at this stage. Please let some of your younger committed minds within the Department of Natural Resources forestry sector add their fresh ideas. They are there and are working amongst you. They even return phone calls. I have listened to them.

So, let’s all work together — industry and government — to get all of our ideas out in the best interest of the forestry sector of the province. This is all part of good, go-forward, non-stagnant forest management.

That is what we need if the government of this province want to see a strong sawmill/forest industry leading into the future.